Court reinstates charges against woman in fatal trooper shootout

A New Jersey woman faces charges for buying the gun her boyfriend used to kill a state trooper.

A Monroe County judge was wrong to throw out conspiracy and weapons charges against a New Jersey woman who bought the gun her boyfriend used to kill a state trooper, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled.

The decision reinstates the charges against 29-year-old Emily Joy Gross, who has already served a prison sentence in a related federal case, and sends her conspiracy case back to Monroe County Court for further proceedings.

Gross of Westfield, N.J., was charged in Monroe County after Daniel Autenrieth took a 9mm handgun she had left in his Palmer Township home and kidnapped his 9-year-old son from his estranged wife's home in June 2009.

Autenrieth led police on a 40-mile chase that ended in Coolbaugh Township with a shootout in which he and Trooper Joshua Miller, 34, of Pittston Township, Luzerne County, were killed. Another officer was wounded, but Autenrieth's son was unharmed.

Prosecutors alleged Gross conspired with Autenrieth to give him access to the weapon. He was forbidden to possess firearms under the terms of a protection from abuse order obtained by his wife.

In a pretrial motion, Gross' lawyers argued that the charges should be dismissed or transferred to another county because the alleged crimes were not connected to Monroe County. Judge Jennifer H. Sibum agreed, and the Superior Court upheld her decision.

Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso said the case will now return to Monroe County Court where a judge must decide on a number of additional motions before the case can move toward trial. The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years in state prison.

In an opinion Wednesday, state Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin wrote that Sibum "misperceived the nature of the charges," when she determined that the conspiracy between Gross and Autenrieth ended when she left the gun at his home.

"The trial court failed to appreciate that the object of the conspiracy … was to provide Autenrieth with unlimited possession and unconditional access to a firearm," Eakin wrote.

That conspiracy continued as long as she allowed Autenrieth to possess her gun, the opinion says.

Eakin also wrote that the Monroe County judge erred in dismissing counts charging Gross as an accomplice in illegal possession or lending of a firearm. The judge reasoned it was Autenrieth and not Gross who possessed the gun in Monroe County.

"Because Autenrieth was present with the gun in Monroe County, and Gross aided Autenrieth's illegal possession of that firearm, Gross could be found liable as an accomplice for Autenrieth's illegal possession wherever he was," Eakin wrote.

The court voted unanimously to reinstate the charges.

Finally, Eakin wrote that the court was wrong to dismiss the charges rather than transfer the case to either Berks County or Northampton County.

According to court records, Gross bought the gun May 28, 2009, at Cabela's, a sporting goods store near Hamburg, in part with winnings from an Atlantic City casino trip with Autenrieth earlier that day.

While Gross' parents argued in a letter to the federal judge who sentenced her that she wanted the gun for protection from an ex-boyfriend who had stalked her, federal prosecutors said it was Autenrieth who persuaded her to buy the weapon.

Autenrieth and Gross took deliberate steps to skirt New Jersey's lengthy waiting period for a firearms permit, federal prosecutors said. As the couple drove from Atlantic City back to Pennsylvania, Autenrieth persuaded Gross to change the address on her auto insurance from her parents' New Jersey address to his Palmer Township address, court records say.

He then took her to a Pennsylvania driver's license center to get a new license, before driving 40 minutes to Cabela's to buy the gun, prosecutors said.

Gross pleaded guilty in February 2011 to lying on paperwork that federally licensed firearms dealers are required to complete about the true buyer of the gun. U.S. District Judge C. Darnell Jones sentenced Gross to seven months in prison, followed by house arrest.